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BRANDED CONTENT VENTURES INTO TV ADVERTISING

by Brian McKay28/02/2017

Dual screening is a phrase that has become increasingly common in recent years. It is a term used to describe the action of having a TV on, while simultaneously using a second screen, such as a mobile, tablet or laptop.

In 2015 Accenture found, ‘87% of consumers use more than one device at a time. Globally, the smartphone is the most frequent companion device scoring 57% overall. This trend is particularly strong for millennials, with 74% of 14- to17-year-olds using a combination of TV/smartphones during viewing. This is not the case in North America, where a laptop/computer was used more frequently for simultaneous viewing (59%t vs. 42% for smartphones)’.

An eConsultancy study found that 76% of simultaneous deviceusage is spent looking at completely unrelated content to what’s on TV. Simply put, people are too engaged, too connected, to focus on one medium. One American broadcaster is hoping to reverse that trend or at the very least hold the attention of it’s viewers longer.

COMEDY CENTRAL’S HANDY – BRANDED-CONTENT AD BREAK MINI SERIES

A PRECEDENT SET…

There is a precedent for seeing short form creative ideas develop and evolve, with both Broad City (an American comedy series initially developed as a web series) and Flight of the Conchords (a New Zealand based comedy band, initially a radio series before transferring to TV)being two examples that branded content could follow. If it is creative, creates a lot of noice, seeing a branded content spot expanded to a show in its own right is entirely possible. In a recent article we examined Taco Bell’s foray into branded content marketing, with the creation of Taco Tales – short videos telling customer stories on YouTube. To go from that, to putting similar content on actual television is not such a leap as people might first think.

“It’s not different than the lens we need to put on ourselves as human beings. What’s the authentic expression of yourself that gets people to want to engage? It’s the same thing for brands — finding the authenticity within the brand’s persona. We still believe in TV. Our brand is mass, but I like to tell deeper stories too and engage in fun ways. The challenge is how to do the whole thing. That’s made the job of a marketer harder,” says Marisa Thalberg, Chief Marketing Officer at Taco Bell. Taking that desire expressed above, of wanting to create more authentic content to engage people with, Chris Ficarra, EVP of integrated marketing at Viacom Velocity, told Adweek, “I’d love to see a day—whether it be show premieres or tentpoles—where we’re creating content that’s really seamless and organic to the show and can take fans from break to break”.

SUMMARY

What Ficarra is suggesting must be considered the next organic development in branded content. A combination of branded content for both TV shows and adverts would allow organisations to be creative on two fronts and to maintain audience engagement throughout the entire televised slot. Based on audience insight brands will need to extend their creativity and reach ,making better use of the content streams available to them.